“Cloud-based platforms play a critical role in shaping digital ecosystems, connecting people to information and infrastructure.”

Tango Matsumoto, CTO and CIO at Fujitsu

Image: Enno Kapitza

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How cloud underpins digital ecosystems

February 2015

Cloud-based business platforms are shaping digital ecosystems — from urban mobility and transportation to healthcare and life sciences, says Fujitsu’s Tango Matsumoto.

“In a hyperconnected world, the way of doing business will fundamentally change. More and more, business will work as a digital ecosystem. Traditionally value has been created for each end user through a closed value chain. But in a hyperconnected world value will be co-created for each end user through a digital ecosystem that crosses the boundaries of existing industries. From the viewpoint of an end user, he or she can flexibly choose a mash-up of digitalized products and services that are available in the ecosystem.

We’re all familiar with the concept of a digital ecosystem regarding smartphones. Millions of applications and services are provided on smartphone handsets by different parties. But increasingly more things and services will be digitalized and transformed in a similar way. This will be a radical change in how business will work.

We believe a cloud-based business platform will play a critical role in shaping a digital ecosystem. Cloud is not only the way of reducing the total cost of ownership of IT infrastructure; it plays the extremely important role of connecting everything across the boundaries of existing industries.Evolving ecosystems

Working with our customers and partners, Fujitsu is co-creating cloud-based business platforms to shape such digital ecosystems.

An early example is in the area of transportation and urban mobility where we are operating a location data cloud service called SPATIOWL. This collects the ever-changing location data of taxis and commercial vehicles and generates dynamic services. Using the SPATIOWL database we are able to visualize real-time traffic status. But the true merit of this cloud service is to provide a platform to connect people with a wide range of information and infrastructure.

Elsewhere in the healthcare and life sciences space a cloud-based platform has great potential to connect healthcare services, business and academic institutions. This will realize a totally new value proposition for the quality of life and wellbeing of people rather than simply the treatment of patients.

The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) at the University of Tokyo is using Fujitsu’s Technical Computing Cloud for the discovery and design of new drugs. Working with Fujitsu and pharmaceutical company Kowa, RCAST has jointly succeeded in designing new active chemical compounds that target cancer.

Another example involves a digital ecosystem for safer food. Fujitsu’s agricultural cloud, called Akisai, is already used by more than 200 businesses across various sectors in Japan. One of the newest participants is Japanese sake brewery Asahi Shuzo, which makes the world-renowned high-quality sake, Dassai. Ironically, its global success has produced a challenge — it needed to ensure a stable supply of the specialty rice yamada nishiki which is used in the production of Dassai. Using the Akisai cloud, Asahi Shuzo aims to increase total production by establishing best practice and sharing know-how with new producers.

As that shows, a cloud-based business platform can play a critical role in shaping digital ecosystems, thereby creating greater value for society.”Article updated April 2015.

As CTO and CIO at Fujitsu, Tango Matsumoto leads both technology and IT strategy at the Japanese ICT giant. Previously head of global marketing, he has also served as president of the company’s corporate planning office and president of telecoms business development.

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